Event Description:The ETSU Department of Art & Design and the Reece Museum are honored to present Diverge, a multimedia group exhibition by the Graduate Fine Arts Associations (GFAA) of East Tennessee State University.The Diverge exhibition is on display from March 18, 2014 through April 17, 2014 with a reception and gallery talk on March 20, Thursday, from 5-7 p.m. with Artists’ talks beginning at 5:30p.m.

The Reece Museum is excited to present these emerging artists and their work to encourage art appreciation and creative exploration. The works on view demonstrates the fresh and inspiring research of the graduate candidates in their diverse fields of study including Ceramics, Printmaking, Painting, Drawing, Photography, and Graphic Design.

Grouped together these works are a contemporary display of unhindered exploration regarding poignant issues in society today. The viewer will be moved through color, texture and sounds exhilarating for all the senses, at the same time, awaking the thought process to consider the conceptual basis woven into the works.

The Diverge exhibition celebrates the outstanding quality and diversity of work developed under the mentorship at the ETSU Department of Art & Design. The participating in the Diverge exhibition includes:

Marissa Angel is a first year MFA candidate with a concentration in printmaking. Through her work she explores environmental issues and the concepts of re-use and the resiliency of nature.

Katherine Block, President of the GFAA, is a second year MFA candidate with a concentration in painting. Her work revolves around the events in the Middle East entitled the Arab Spring and the sensation of liberation associated with those happenings. She expresses her concepts through color, texture and the use multi-media such as video and sound.

Art Brown is a third year MFA candidate with a concentration in printmaking. Brown often uses controversial issues and current events as inspiration for his work. By combining letterpress type with images printed from linoleum blocks, he represents different sides of those issues, interjects humor, and states his own personal opinions.

Rickey Bump, Treasure of the GFAA, is a first year MFA candidate with a concentration in drawing. His piece titled “The Quality and Variety of Painters Tape” explores the use of ordinary, self-evident material and simplifies thoughts of mass production and consumption.

V. Kelsey Ellis, Secretary of the GFAA, is a second year MFA candidate with a concentration in drawing. Her mixed media collage series examines ideas, definitions, and interpretations of beauty.

Whitney Goller is a first year MFA candidate with a concentration in drawing and painting. She portrays individuals possessing a quality ofdisconnect shown in contrast with their obvious connections to our society.

David Grant is an MFA candidate with a concentration in ceramics. Grant is exploring the metaphor of light contained in vessels through his formation of objects resembling small bowls and containers.

Amber Law is a first year MFA candidate with a concentration in photography. She is exploring concepts concerning women and photographing them in their bedroom or domestic environment.

Katlyn Osborne is a first year MFA candidate with a concentration in printmaking. For Osborne, dialogue presented by flora and fauna have created a ritual and spiritual mysticism throughout mythology and culture. By combining the silhouette of flowers with the depictions of animals and humans she has begun to create a language that explains the human condition.

Greg Pace is currently a candidate for his MFA in ceramics from ETSU.Pace’s work is centered on technical ceramic discovery related to color and firing resulting in tradition and non-traditional forms and images. His soda fired stoneware vessels depict the dichotomy of the earth and clay against man's destructive nature.

Danielle Sevigny Winger, Vice President of the GFAA, is a second year MFA candidate with a concentration in painting. Originally from Nevada, but most recently lived in Nashville, TN. Being a transient person who has moved and lived in several places spanning the country, Sevigny Winger's work explores through paint how geography of place and space affects self identity.

Katie Sheffield is a candidate for her MFA in Photography from ETSU.She received her BFA in Photography from ETSU. Her photographs are based upon her lifelong interest of the people and communities of Southern Appalachia. Currently, Sheffield has been focused on Civil War re-enactors.Conceptually, she is exploring how the re-enactors integrate into the twenty-first century South.

Brooke Wedding is a third year graduate student in graphic design. She earned her BA in graphic design from Tusculum College in Greeneville, TN. Wedding's current work is focusing on typography and its relationship to how we read. Her current pieces explore this concept with the use of fabric.

Please visit the Diverge exhibition at the Reece Museum located at 363 Stout Drive on the campus of ETSU, Johnson City, TN.All events are open to the public free of charge.The Reece Museum is open to the public for viewing on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday from 10a.m.-4p.m, Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.For more information, contact the Reece Museum at (423) 439-4392.